ABC-Moscow: Repressions summary for January-February 2014

From now on, we are going to publish summaries of repressions against
anarchists, antifascists and social activists in Russia on a regular
basis, as well as on how the state opposes our activity. In the
January-February issue: sudden amnesty of antifascists in Moscow, Kazan,
Nizhny Novgorod, attempt to ban "Avtonom" zine due to
"extremism", detentions during Jan19 actions, verdicts in Moscow,
Murmansk, Petersburg and other "heroic deeds" of cops from "E"-department.

If you think that we have missed something in our article, or you know
about other cases of repressions, please write to abc-msk@riseup.net.

On February 24th, Zamoskvoretsky Court delivered verdicts for eight
defendants, accused according to "Bolotnoe Case". The judge, Natalia
Nikishina, found eight people guilty in participating in so-called
"rioting" on May 6th 2012 at the Bolotnaya square in Moscow and violence
against policemen. There were our comrades among the convicted: Alexey
Polikhovich (sentenced to 3.5 years in prison colony), Stepan Zimin
(sentenced to 3.5 years in prison colony), and Alexandra Dukhanina — she
was the only one who got suspended sentence, 3 years and 3 months.

Verdict for Alexey Raskhodchikov

On February 11th, court in Murmansk sentenced anarchist and activist
Alexey Raskhodchikov to 1 year in prison colony. He was accused in
violence, dangerous for life and health against the official (Part 2, of
Criminal Code 318 article). The case against Raskhodchikov has been
roughly framed up by local policemen, after they had beaten activist in
Summer 2013 during unlawful detention. Details on the sentence and
Raskhodchikov's case. Weeks of actions in solidarity with Alexey
Raskhodchikov were organized from February 20th till March 10. You can
get information on solidarity actions at the Alexei's support website:http://raskhodchikov.info
Yandex wallet for raising money for paying up his lawyer and other
expenses: 410011959939084

Note that we do not know yet if letters in English are accepted in this
prison colony, so it is better to translate your letters with a google
translator or pass them for support group to be translated:
raskhodchikov.info <> gmail <> com

Cases against "extremism"

In the November, court of Tyumen suddenly decided to declare three old
issues of Avtonom magazine (29, 32, and 33) as "extremist". According
to attorney office, some articles of the magazine allegedly advocate
terrorism, and call to violence against Nazi and policemen. More details
on an insane expert evaluation made by cop-friendly linguists and ban of
three issues.

Nevertheless, theses magazine issues have not been included into the
federal list of extremist materials yet. Tyuman court decision would be
challenged, possibly.

Ban of three particular issues does not affect other other issues of
"Avtonom" — they are absolutely legal. A new issue was published
recently, don not miss it!

Detentions after actions

Our comrades were detained after January-19 actions in Irkutsk
andPetersburg. In Irkutsk two activists were detained after dropping an
antifascist banner from a building. They had spent a day and night in a
detention room, after that a court justified them. Story from activists
is published here.

In Saint Petersburg, anarchists blocked the traffic on Vasilievsky
Ostrov and marched with banners and chants on January 19th. After the
actions, policemen detained several activists, they were released later
with offence reports filed.

In Petersburg, on February 22, activists supporting Ukraine uprising
were detained, while burning tyres in front of Spas-na-Krovi Cathedral
in the city centre. After two days, court justified two of detained, who
were under an accusation of disorderly conduct (art. 20.1 of
Administrative Code), and the court hearing related to unauthorized
rally was rescheduled to an indefinite date.

Amnesty for "hooligans"

In December, State Duma(Russian Parliament) declared amnesty for
prisoners and accused, as a "handsome gesture" of "generous" State, it
turned out to be a usual fraud and nothing. However, some had a luck: to
escape of the worldwide shame, a special point for jailed Greenpeace
environmentalists has been included into amnesty statement. First,
environmentalists were accused of "piracy", later the accusation has
been changed to "hooliganism". Amnesty applies to all accused in such
crime — by a fluke, it was announced in the time, when some of our
comrades were judged with fake "hooliganism" charges.

As a result, in Moscow, people with hooliganism charges, related with a
fight in "Vozdukh" club — Alexey Sutuga, Alexey Olesinov, Babken
Gukasyan and Alen Volikov have been amnestied. Details on the amnesty
and the case.

In Nizhny Novgorod, Pavel Krivonosov, Oleg Gembaruk, and Dmitry Kolesov,
who were accused in participation in an extremist group "Antifa-RASH",
fabricated by "E"-department officers, have been amnestied.
Unfortunately, another two activists—Albert Gainutdinov and Artem
Bystrov—who succeeded in escaping, have not been amnestied.

Details on amnesty and the "Antifa-RASH" case

In Kazan, Ruslan Rostov, Oleg Kapustyanov, Artem Sher, and Dmitry
Ilichev, who were detained in April 2013 and accused of attacking local
Nazis (who actively helped the investigation with their false witness),
were amnestied.

Series of our comrades are still under investigation on fake charges,
some of them are jailed in pretrial custody.

Alexey Gaskarov is charged, as part of "Bolotnoe case", with
"participation in riots" and violence against official — Alexey is
accused of pulling a hand of a conscript soldier and a leg of a riot
police officer. According Alexey, he really tried to pull that riot
policeman away from a demonstrator lying on the ground, who was being
clubbed by that policeman. That is all his "crime".

You can send funds for paying up lawyers (of Alexey and other political
prisoners) to the following Yandex.Money wallet: 410011867897149

Ilya Romanov, since the end of 80-es, who has been actively
participating in anarchist movement, was injured on October 26th 2013
near the Nizhny Novgorod district military registration and enlistment
office. As a result of detonation, that happened in the late night, his
left hand was severely injured, and face has been burned, he was
sent to hospital, where doctors have amputated his hand. Romanov has
been interrogated as suspect, and has given statement that a pyrotechnic
device activated in his hand.

In December 2013, Romanov was accused of possessing explosives (Criminal
Code article 222), and, additionally, in a terrorist act
attempt(Criminal Code article 205, 30). There is no ground to accuse
Romanov of terrorism, as there is no corpus delicti. Recently Ilia was
included into the List of terrorists and extremists of Russian Financial
Monitoring Agency, under the number 1935. He is currently jailed in a
pretrial custody.

You may transfer money to his wife Larisa for paying up Ilia's lawyer:
Yandex.Money 410012031648898

Log in for more features

Can comment on articles and discussions Get 'recent posts' refreshed more regularly Bookmark articles to your own reading list Use the site private messaging system Start forum discussions, submit articles, and more...